The Operation

Another operation to deal with. This photo was taken crossing the finish line at the 2005 Cooper River Bridge Run. I won the 55-59 year age group that year. I guess you could say the good, old days. I went ahead with the surgery to repair my left side inguinal hernia a few weeks ago. The laparoscopy option left me with much less pain, but it was still no picnic. I was able to do a slow two and a half mile jog four days after the surgery. That was not possible ten years ago when I had the open surgery – a long, four inch incision – for the right side hernia. Now I have a new nemesis to deal with. My right hip is giving me problems. I felt a slight pain when I was biking, but it was so slight I didn’t think about it. After I did the slow jog, it began hurting more. Two days later I went for another jog, and the pain got worse, so bad that I could hardly walk the next morning. I let a few days pass and tried another jog. This time the pain was intense. So now I’m headed to the orthopedist. I read about all the things that can cause hip pain, most of them not good. Now I’m wondering if I will ever be able to get back to running. I was going to go ahead with the custom orthodics, but I’m going to put that on hold until I get a determination on the hip. Getting older is definitely not fun. I am going...

I am back – I can’t call it a blog

I’m finally back to this blog after a long layoff, both writing and running. I’m not really a blogger. I just share my thoughts on occasion. I call it a blog for lack of something different. I may change that designation. The plantar fasciitis came back with a vengeance when I tried to return to doing speed-work. Just to catch up, a little over a year ago I broke a toe. I had to take a month off to let the thing heal. After that, I slowly built up my mileage to 50 or so a week. All was going OK until I started speed-work. That was in June 2011. I tried to keep up some training while letting the plantar heal, but that didn’t work. I had to drop the running altogether. To try and keep some endurance, I got back on my bike. That took some getting use to. I’ve been biking ever since . I recently saw a podiatrist, and he said everything looked OK. It will just take a long time to heal. He did recommend custom orthotics. That will be my next step. But first I have another issue to deal with. That would be an inguinal hernia on my left side. I had one repaired on my right side ten years ago. That was done via open surgery. The pain was intense for some time. This time, I decided to try laparoscopy. They say there is much less pain. I’ll find out soon. I have the operation scheduled for this Friday. After the recovery period, I am going to get the orthotics. Then...